Archive for the ‘Short Reports’ Category

Greek police demands the deportation of an Albanian immigrant who was arrested along with 11 other comrades on 28/12 in Victoria Square in Athens during a public intervention and poster sticking for the demonstration against immigrants detention centers that will take place in Athens on January 11 2014.

On Monday, December 30, the trial of our comrades was postponed for January 8, 2014 due to the absence of witnesses. They were all set free until the trial, except for the immigrant. Despite the judge’s decision to set him also free, the immigrant was illegally detained by the police on the pretext of “administrative reasons”, although he had all the required documents (meaning that he is a “legal” immigrant). The greek police used once more the legal loophole which allows the authorities to extend the detention of migrants, regardless of whether they have papers, having as an excuse their “potential threat to public order and safety”.

The albanian immigrant was transferred to the infamous Petrou Ralli police headquarters for immigrants. Police has already requested his deportation.

A charter plane carrying 42 Pakistani and 41 Afghani nationals left Athens for Islamabad and Kabul on Thursday (December 15, 2011). The same day 24 Egyptians, 1 Sudanese, 1 Ukrainian and 1 Rumanian were deported by cargo planes and 7 Albanians were deported by police vans. All deportation were funded by EU.

A similar deportation took place on December 1, 2011, one more on November, 10, 2011 and another one on October 19, 2011. Since March 2011, when Greece deported some 73 Dominicans, expulsion flights are taking place on a monthly basis.

The German Ministry of Interior informed in a letter that deportations to Greece under the Dublin II Regulation will be suspended for another year. The letter states that despite initial changes in the treatment of asylum seekers in Greece the asylum system still does not comply with European standards.
The moratorium is valid until 12th of January 2013.

On Friday, September 23, a small boat that was trying to get to Italy carrying 65 Kurds and Afghans sans-papiers, broke 90 miles southwest of the island of Zakynthos. When port police reached the vessel only 32 immigrants were aboard. A helicopter participating in the rescue operation managed to save 30 immigrants that have fallen in the sea. Late in the afternoon, the same helicopter discovered the bodies of 3 sans-papiers who drowned at sea.

On Saturday afternoon immigrants held in the detention center of Fylakio, Evros, set fire to mattresses.
Border police forced the inmates out of the building, where they were guarded by riot police units, while fire brigade that arrived from the city of Orestiada managed to put out the fire.
One immigrant was transferred by ambulance to the Medical Center of Orestiada.

Only recently the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced that for almost a month, there has been no medical care to immigrants and asylum seekers in detention in Evros region.

Meanwhile, greek navy and coast police keep searching for survivors from early Saturday shipwreck near the island of Kefalonia. Unfortunately the number of dead will probably rise to 19.

At least four immigrants drowned in the Ionian Sea today, when an inflatable boat sailing about 80 nautical miles west of Kefalonia island, sunk on early Saturday morning.

Eleven immigrants survived. One of them, whose condition was critical, was picked up by a navy helicopter and the remaining ten were picked up by turkish ship «MEHMET DADAYLI 1». The same ship discovered the 4 corpses.

According to one of the survivors onboard the sunk boat there were 30 sans-papiers. If it is so, the number of dead might rise to 19.

Athens, August 29, 2011 – The situation for immigrants held in detention in Evros and Rodopi is once again crucial. For almost a month, there has been no medical care to immigrants and asylum seekers in detention, as teams of the Ministry of Health have stopped providing medical and psychosocial care. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) decided to resume their medical activities in the region to meet the urgent needs of immigrants. Read the rest of this entry »

August 23, 2011. A new bill was voted today, according to which immigrants will be eligible for a temporary residence permit if they can prove they have lived in Greece – illegally – for at least 10 years, down from the current 12 years.

This reduction was agreed after the 300 immigrants’ hunger strike. The initial government’s promise though was to decrease the years from 12 to 8 years.

“The 10-year stipulation will not lead to the mass legalisation of immigrants,” interior minister Haris Kastanidis said.

The minister justified the government’s decision to reduce the minimum duration of residence. He said immigration legislation has changed drastically since 2001 and the current 12-year stipulation meant that migrants with a “genuine connection to Greece, who deserve the right to live and work legally in the country, were being denied residency”.

On Wednesday august 10, Patras police conducted another operation around the port in order to arrest sans-papiers immigrants.
The search focused on the makeshift camps set up by the migrants arriving in Patras, where many live in inhumane conditions as they wait for an opportunity to enter a boat to Italy.
Police detained a total of 49 immigrants and arrested 47 of them because they didn’t possess legal documents.
This is the third such operation by Patras police in the last few days. The two previous searches were conducted in the railway depot at Agios Andreas near the port, where dozens of immigrants were caught.
After the operations were complete, the Greek Railway Organisation (OSE) removed the old, empty carriages that immigrants had been using as shelters.

According to data publicized by the Greek police on July 21 2011, the number of sans-papiers immigrants arrested during the first half of 2011 showed a significant decrease of 43.41% compared to the same period in 2010.
An increase of sans-papiers entries (+22.13%) took place in the Greek-Turkish land border. Arrests in the area of Alexandroupoli had an increase of 237,8%.
According to Greek police and port police, from January to June 2011 were arrested 8.154 Afghans, 5.583 Pakistanis, 4.978 Albanians, 2.126 Bangladeshis, 2.006 Algerians, 2.006 Moroccans, 1.002 Iraqis etc.
Arrests were largely decreased in the Aegean: Lesvos -92,52%, Samos -92,00%, Chios -52,85%, Dodekanisa -99,91%, Cyclades -78,62%, Crete -34,54%. In the rest of the country, number of arrests was decreased by 48,06%.